Coalition News

Amici Briefs Digest – March 2018

Here are amicus briefs and/or letters FAC has either authored or joined since Dec. 2018: FAC Authored Amicus Briefs Brazil v. Newark Unified: On February 2, FAC filed an amicus brief that we co-authored with the ACLU in a trial court proceeding.  This was a fairly unusual move for FAC.  We have generally steered clear of trial-court amicus briefs for a number of reasons, including (a) trial court rulings have limited or no impact beyond

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FAC Fights Unprecedented Effort by School District to Recover Nearly $500K From Records Requester

The First Amendment Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday submitted a friend-of-court brief arguing that an effort by the Newark Unified School District to recover nearly half a million dollars in attorneys’ fees from a woman who requested public records under the California Public Records Act is legally meritless, unprecedented, and would cast an intolerable chill over the public’s ability to learn about their government. Newark Unified has asked the Alameda County

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First Amendment Attorney Duffy Carolan Elected President of FAC Board of Directors

The First Amendment Coalition is pleased to announce the election of Duffy Carolan, an esteemed First Amendment lawyer and longtime board member, as president of FAC’s Board of Directors. Carolan, a former journalist who has spent her career defending the First Amendment, is one of the country’s foremost champions of free speech and access to government information. As a partner at the Jassy, Vick, Carolan firm in San Francisco, Carolan represents a wide range of

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Victory for FAC’s Subpoena Defense Initiative 

A reporter for Berkeleyside, a daily news website in Berkeley, California, will not be required to testify in a criminal trial after FAC’s Subpoena Defense Initiative helped secure attorneys to protect the journalist’s rights under the state’s shield law. Emilie Raguso, a senior reporter at the outlet, received a subpoena last month to testify in the criminal trial of William Turner, who was at the center of a case she covered. Lacking legal counsel to

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FAC Sues Bakersfield For Open Meetings, Records Violations

The First Amendment Coalition (FAC) yesterday filed suit against the city of Bakersfield over the city council’s repeated practice of holding closed-door meetings to discuss topics that under California law must be heard in public. The lawsuit, jointly filed with Californians Aware (CalAware) in Kern County Superior Court, also demands that the city release public records relating to the unlawful council sessions—records the city is required to disclose under the California Public Records Act but

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